| In order to explore the mechanism of high water utilization efficiency in fruit-crop intercropping, we conducted the best fruit-crop intercropping pattern suitable for southern Xinjiang and jujube-cotton intercropping system was studied in the field. Planting modes (intercropping and single cropping) and field allocation (cotton planting rows were 2, 4 and 6； cotton plant spacing was 10 cm and 12.5 cm, respectively) were used as test factors. The number of rows planted was 10 rows and plant spacing was 10 and 12.5 cm. A total of 9 treatments and 3 repetitions per treatment were randomly arranged in 27 plots with a plot area of 3 m×10 m. The water consumption characteristics, yield, water use efficiency and water equivalence ratio of each treatment were determined. The results showed that planting mode significantly affected water consumption characteristics of composite population. Water consumption of jujube-cotton intercropping increased by 9.5% on average compared with single cropping. Inter-tree evaporation decreased by 11.4 mm and evapotranspiration ratio (E/ET) by 13.5%. The number of rows planted in cotton significantly affected the water consumption characteristics of the composite population. The water consumption of intercropping 6 rows of cotton increased by 9.1%~13.9% compared with intercropping 2 rows of cotton. Intercropping 6 rows of cotton increased soil water storage consumption by 35.2 mm and 66.3 mm, respectively, compared with intercropping 4 rows and 2 rows of cotton. Inter-tree evaporation decreased by 24.2 mm and 33.7 mm, respectively. E/ET decreased by 16.0% and 22.2%, respectively. The variation of cotton plant spacing only had a significant effect on soil water storage consumption. Soil water storage consumption in I3 treatment (intercropping cotton 4 lines) was 24.4 mm higher than that in I4 treatment (intercropping cotton 2 lines). I1(plant spacing 10 cm) is 14.7 mm higher than I2(plant spacing 12.5 cm). Intercropping group of jujube and cotton had the highest water consumption for soil storage in 40~60 cm soil layer, followed by 20~40 cm soil layer, 80~100 cm soil layer was the lowest. Single-cropping jujube trees made more use of deep soil moisture. Cotton monocropping mainly consumed water in shallow soil. Intercropping of jujube and cotton could make better use of water in different soil layers. As far as the utilization of soil water storage was concerned, increasing the number of rows of cotton or decreasing the plant spacing was helpful to promote the utilization of soil water storage in 40~80 cm soil layer. The WER of different intercropping treatments of jujube and cotton were all greater than 1, which indicated that jujube and cotton intercropping improved WUE compared with monoculture. When the number of intercropping rows and plant spacing were 4 and 12.5 cm, the comprehensive benefit of jujube and cotton intercropping was the best, the yield was 7 460 kg·hm-2, WUE was 11.37 kg·mm-1·hm-2, and WER was 1.34. |